We Can Fall Hard (Just like That)
by jinxed-lulu
Summary: Rachel has always known she's a little bit psychic, but she'll never understand just how much until in her twenties. How could she have ever guessed that a dream she had in high school could be so important in adulthood. P/R, F/R
1. PART I

**Disclaimer:** All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

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**A/N:** I've been bitten by the _Glee_ bug after that lovely Season Six premier. Not to mention the original gleeks preforming A-ha's "Take on Me" to add fuel to the fire.

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**A/N #2:** This takes place sometime between S03xE09—"Extraordinary Merry Christmas" and S03xE10—"Yes/No".

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**We Can Fall Hard (Just like That)**

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**PART I**

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Rachel has always tried to tell anyone who'd listen that she's just a bit psychic—like knowing it was her Bubbe who was calling without looking at Caller ID, or sensing the someone would be knocking on the door minutes before they did—but most of the public scoffed or scored her. She even had a feeling her daddies were just humoring her, rather than truly _believing_.

Yet for the past week Rachel's psychic sensors had been tingling; nothing concrete, but humming in the background in Glee Club. First she'd thought it had to do something with the club, almost leading to an enormous panic attack—it was senior year, last one to get to _and_ win Nationals for her. But luckily it had nothing to do with the group as a whole, and unluckily everything to do with Noah "Puck" Puckerman as a whole. That faint humming became almost loud buzzing when around the resident badass.

It had gotten to the point that she couldn't help but be weary in his presence.

Now though? It'd just reached a new level of _weird_, and that was saying something when the thought belonged to Rachel Berry. The digital clock still confirmed the date to be January 17, 2012 at 3:46AM; looking in the mirror at her vanity was the same face she saw every day, eighteen-year-old Rachel; the 'Finn' necklace sat innocently on the jewelry box.

Even with all evidence that the world hadn't spun off axis, something deep within Rachel felt…_changed_. Nor had the breathless feeling that'd been with her since the dream worn off.

Closing her eyes, she tried to remember the finer details of the strange dream world.

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_She was in the choir room at McKinley, though it was quite different, it wasn't hard to figure out her surroundings. It was different things on the shelves, and lack of Mr. Schue's writing on the board; still the walls, chairs, and piano were the same as ever._

_What surprised her most was the doppelganger who walked in from the hall—the Not-Rachel was older, shorter layered hair, and lacking a certain pep to her strut. Not-Rachel blew out a heavy breath that made her bangs flutter, while looking glumly around the room, before using her arms to lean against the piano. Quickly she spun about to thumb through the sheet music on the piano._

_Footsteps sounding from the door drew Rachel's attention from her disturbing elder doppelganger; but that sight was only mildly _more_ disturbing. Entering the choir room was Noah Puckerman, who was dressed in uniform and without his iconic Mohawk. Clearly he had to be the Not-Noah, who more than her odd look-a-like proved this to be a bizarro world._

"_Berry," his husky voice echoed loudly in the quiet room. "You're going to kick ass at this, you know?"_

_Not-Rachel turned to look up at him, lips quirked into a tiny smile. "Is that so?"_

"_Who are _you_?" Not-Noah asked with the perfect Puck smirk._

"_Rachel Berry," she answered him, voice hushed and holding the same confusion as her face._

"_That's right!" he said with a smug leer, "when has Rachel Berry ever legit not given everything she has? Even when it passes badass into crazy."_

"_No-ah!" Not-Rachel admonished him. Though her biting back a smile, and looking up at him through lashes gave her away._

_Her double kept talking, but Rachel paid their conversation no attention—she was more interested tableau they made. How Not-Noah stood relaxed his arms crossed at his chest, face open and soft, hazel eyes focused on Not-Rachel, looking at her with…_love_. Not-Rachel looked up at him with a shyness that Rachel couldn't ever really remember giving Noah, a different type of fondness filtered through Not-Rachel's brown eyes too._

_A dramatic gasp escaped her lips when the scene finally made sense to her; these two, Not-Rachel and Not-Noah, had romantic feelings towards one another._

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And just as Rachel was going to focus on what the two of them were saying, the focus had gone out, leaving confusing blurs of images that left as quickly as they'd come.

Like her standing on a stage preforming with New Directions; cuddled with Kurt on a sofa in an unknown place; walking down a New York street; standing on Bow Bridge looking sadly at her phone; performing a duet with Finn in a pink dress; dancing in the halls of McKinley in neon colors with Mercedes, Sam and Noah; and so many more that Rachel couldn't even hope to remember what it had been, other than a dash of color and hint of someone's face.

Clearly unable to come up with any reasonable answers, Rachel turned away from the mirror and got back into bed. And if only to keep herself from obsessing over this, she'd decide that her psychic tendencies were so amazing they'd picked up a Rachel and Noah of another universe—it fed into her diva and explained the lack of Finn.

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After waking at her usual time, Rachel continued her morning routine, calmed residual nerves by singing. However, the morning text from Finn, helped ease Rachel better than anything else could have.

_**FINN:**__ Morning Rach! See u at school. Love you!_

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Finn was waiting for her outside the doors to the school where she usually parked her car. He was casually leaning against the brick wall, long legs extended and crossed at the knees, and a slushee in his hand. When he noticed her walking towards him, his face lit up and a goofy smile transformed his mouth.

"Hey Rach," he murmured against her hair as he pulled her in his arms and kissed the top of her head.

Rachel couldn't help the big smile as she took in his scent. "Good morning, Finn," she returned, talking against his chest. "I hope you slept well."

His laugh was soft but vibrated his chest, "Yeah, I had a good sleep." Finn stepped back to look down at her with a cheerful smile, brown eyes glinting with laughter.

Not wanting to wait any longer, he bent his knees and covered Rachel's mouth with his own in a kiss that was so wonderful that Rachel had no sense of time, not even thinking about oxygen. Just happy to be with her leading man, the love of her life.

"I love you," Rachel told him, voice breathy from the kiss. Time spent with this young man, making details of the dream become elusive.

"I love you, too," he said with that handsome crooked grin.

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_**[TBC]**_


	2. PART II

**A/N:** This takes place during S06xE02—"Homecoming".

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**We Can Fall Hard (Just like That)**

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**PART II**

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"This is beginning to feel quite impossible," Rachel declared miserably to Kurt.

"Oh, Diva," he murmured, prompting her to turn and look at him. "It isn't going to be _impossible_—" he paused to give Rachel a look when her mouth opened to interrupt "—it _isn't_. Sure it's not going to be just putting up a sign up sheet, and somehow this group of different kids coming together. But, let me ask you something. When has that ever stopped us?"

Rachel bit her lip and twirled her warm tea from Lima Bean in her hand; she and Kurt had taken a moment to sit outside McKinley after returning from the café to just breathe. They'd been quiet, taking in the familiar feel of the one place the two of them once couldn't wait to flee quickly enough a few years before—the same place members of this glee club seemed to find themselves time and time again, a place that felt very much like _home_.

"Never. Doesn't mean it always has the _greatest_ results, but statistically, you and I rarely let an obstacle stand in the way of something we desire," she answered his rhetorical question without pause and flashed her best friend a smile.

Honestly Rachel was of two minds about running McKinley's glee club. It was positive thing for any school to have the arts, plus spending all this time with Kurt and it kept her working musically. However the hugest point in the pro list was in line with Mr. Schue's parting words in her new office—this was supposed to be Finn's club, office, job; Rachel wanted to do this to honor him, even if in the smallest way possible. Not that meeting up with the original members recently had been such a hardship either.

Kurt pulled his cup away to reveal a smirk, "Exactly."

"I'm going to put the rest of the sheet music away, then head home," Rachel told him, looking over her shoulder as she threw away the empty cup. "Call you when I get home?"

Her best friend walked away backwards, pulling his shades down to wink at her with a peppy, "You know it!" before pivoting on heel to keep onwards to the parking lot.

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The walk to the choir room was silent, only a few hushed voices heard through doors of the teens staying for various clubs. She used the silence to focus on, rather than whatever thoughts wanted run free inside her head.

Once inside the room that had once been her second home, Rachel released her breath in a huff, causing her bangs to stir as she looked around the room and leaned against the piano. Alone she allowed her mind to remember the rigged duet competition of junior year, dressing up as a nun and priest with Finn; how his face lit up when she'd positively answered his proposal; falling deeper and deeper in love with Finn.

In this room she could almost _see_ him ten times more clearly—his charming crooked grin, cinnamon eyes crinkling in laughter, those few freckles on his cheekbones. Yet it no longer killed her a bit inside to feel this way, but eased the tightness in her chest.

Rachel spun around to thumb through the sheet music she'd returned to put away, but didn't quite lose her line of thought. No longer did she feel as if there'd never be someone to love; part of her would love Finn _forever_—and though she couldn't say with certainty that they would have stayed each other's last loves had he still been there—Rachel could honestly state she wasn't _in love_ with him. She had mourned him and the feeling when it too came to an end. And Rachel liked to think he'd been pleased and happy for her.

"Berry," it was the sound of Noah's husky voice that drew her attention. "You're going to kick ass at this, you know?"

She turned her head to look at him with a small smile, wondering how he'd always known what she needed to hear. "Is that so?"

"Who are _you_?" he shot back, his Puck-like smirk perfectly in place.

"Rachel Berry," she answered, voice echoing the confusion Rachel felt. It wasn't unusual, Noah often left her confused during most conversations, but it often made sense later, with good intentions in the end.

"That's right!" he said, giving her a once over with a smug leer, "when has Rachel Berry ever legit not given everything she has? Even when it passes badass into crazy."

"No-ah!" she scolded him, biting a smile back and looking at him through lashes to hide her amusement, not that it mattered, never being able to hide much from _him_. "You're incorrigible! I swear you'll nev—" Rachel broke off, the sudden feeling of déjà vu taking over.

"Rachel?" Noah questioned worried, "baby you ok? Like, you legit never shut up, never mind _stop_ out of nowhere."

His hushed but concerned tone was welcomed, but not the important thing at that moment. Rachel looked him over—every moment she'd spent with him dressed in uniform, a tingle worked its way down her spine; mostly she'd written it off as mild arousal, but now it seemed like more.

"Ssshh," Rachel hissed at him, eyes narrowed. "I thank you very much for your concern, Noah, but I'm trying to think!"

"You and your brand of crazy, Berry," she vaguely heard him mutter under his breath and could picture him rolling hazel eyes.

Taking a sweep around the room, Rachel felt the answer climb to the tip of her tongue, but it was making accidental eye contact with Noah that it came to her. The insane dream Rachel had in senior year, then wrote off less than a week later. Everything was _exactly_ the same; she standing next to the piano, Noah in his uniform stood across from her—and while maybe she couldn't remember the dream word-for-word, she could recall him asking who she was.

Half of her wanted to jump and squeal in joy! Hadn't Rachel told people she was a bit psychic only to be laughed at or simply humored? While the other half was freaking out, her crazy dream hadn't been a dream at all, no it'd been a _vision_. A vision that showed her that the future lied with Noah "Puck" Puckerman, tried to tell her that Finn was not her forever. It had tried to force Rachel to admit the glimmer in those hazel eyes was indeed _love_ when he looked at her, not just some _unnamed emotion_, because Rachel simply didn't want to deal with it.

Suddenly she couldn't help but giggle a bit—_we're two hot Jews and it's only natural, baby_. And there she was left curious how Noah often knew what to say or knew somehow it usually came back to the two of them. Only natural indeed.

"Berry?" he questioned tentatively, voice shocking the too quiet room. "You OK?"

"Never better," Rachel answered him honestly with a blinding smile. Finally she was _grateful_ to this setback that'd sent her home to Lima, Ohio, to him again. "_Never better_," she repeated to emphasis how true it was.

Not giving him time to talk, she closed the short distance between them, leaned up and kissed him, wrapping her arms around his neck. It took a minute for him to respond, probably the shock, but soon he was an enthusiastic partner—tangling one hand in her hair, while an arm banded around her waist to pull her closer. Rachel tried to put everything she was feeling or ever felt for this man into the kiss; somehow knowing this was _the moment_ and no going back afterwards.

Pulling back from the kiss, Noah kept his forehead on hers and took a harsh breath that covered her own gasp.

Hazel eyes looked intensely into her own, his face had never been more serious. "I'm not complaining, trust me I'm not. But what the hell was that, Berry?"

Rachel took no offence to his gruff posture, knowing it was in place should she try to claim this was a mistake and didn't want her to see his hurt. Giving her an out was sweet, sweet but foolish—she didn't want nor need it.

"We're two hot Jews and it's only natural, baby," she recited his words back to him, happy to see the stiff and tense set to his face and body loosen, and lips twist into a smirk.

"That true?" he husked, eyes darkening but gaining a hopeful spark.

"Very," Rachel told him, eyes never leaving his, "I want to give this a try, Noah. I'd always been a bit frightened by this chemistry we share when I was younger. This felt like something so much _more_, still does, but I'm more than ready to be consumed by this."

His smile was open and showed his immense pleasure her words gave him. Noah stared at her with nothing but love and awe in his gaze. And the hand that'd tangled in her hair during the kiss was lazily combing through the silky strands.

"I love you, too, baby," he said slowly and surely, his lips ghosting the words across her own.

Tilting up she pressed her mouth on his sweetly—needing to taste him and those words. It didn't take long before their passion turned up and Noah's mouth slanted over hers' possessively, kissing her hard and demanding. When the need for air became too much, he moved his mouth to her neck to keep pressing open mouth kisses on the skin; their pants and gasps loud in the silent choir room.

Not wanting to rush this thing between them, and truly not wanting to let Sue Sylvester to have any dirt on her this soon, Rachel pulled back from him after removing her leg from his hip. Noah seemed to have gotten her message, as he came back to their surroundings, but didn't let her go that easily; wrapping those large arms around Rachel, to hold her to him.

"And, I love you," Rachel told him simply in return, words slightly muffled on his shoulder.

His honest and happy laughter was her answer; it was really more than enough.

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**[End]**


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